We're just a couple of days away from hitting the field for real in Fort Myers for the Minnesota Twins first Grapefruit League game against Atlanta Saturday.
There are still some unanswered questions around the Twins roster, but the next month will shake out who plays where and what kind of lineup the team will field. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli talks to WCCO's Jason DeRusha at spring training and they break down some of those things, plus they start with how players are balancing that all-important family life with life on a Major League roster.
There are kids everywhere. I want to ask you about the family atmosphere around the Twins because it seems like so many of your players have young babies, or pregnancies, and all of this coming down during the season. I think fans today look at it in a different way where they want these players to take the paternity days. That was different from how it used to be?
Oh, it's different. In baseball, it probably still doesn't function quite like a lot of other places in the world today, but you get more paternity leave than I did back when I had my kids.
You get three, right?
Yeah, well that's the players. And really, I think the key part of this is, we try to make this a good environment for the players and their ability to bring their children around at certain points in the day. I think is great and I think it's their memories that they're gonna have forever. Our guys are very focused. They get their work done and they work very hard all day long. So when there's a time to have a little bit of family time at the ballpark, I think they relish it.
What is it like for the guys and for you to have everybody together, back and ready to get this thing going?
One of the things that I thought was important to talk about today, walking through just what it feels like to fight your way through a season, go into the playoffs, earn that opportunity, and then fight for a World Series, the things that you're really playing for here. I think one of the key things that I actually did mention was you bring a community together in a way that you really can't understand until you do it. And that becomes part of the goal and becomes the biggest part of the goal. The guys in our clubhouse who have done this, Christian Vasquez has done this, Carlos Correa has done this, I was fortunate to play in a World Series. We didn't win the World Series, but you get a chance to, it's on the, kind of the tips of your fingers. This is what it's all about and communicating that to the players today was enjoyable for me. I liked it.
It is bigger than baseball in especially you look at the impact on downtown Minneapolis, the whole state, the whole region. What it means when you guys are rocking it changes the vibe?
The vibe when we were in the playoffs a couple of years ago, it was amazing. It was amazing and it changes your life just experiencing it, feeling it. I couldn't believe it around me. Rarely do I slow things down and look around in the ballpark, but that was one of those moments where I did. So we want to get back there.
You really changed the hitting approach a little bit this year. New staff that you have. Are you getting back to more of a contact approach?
Well, we do have a new staff and I think there will be some adjustments. I don't want to say we're completely revamping everything we do. I think that would be a little bold, but we have guys that are very good major league hitters, that we don't want them to change that much, but I do think that bringing things back to a more refined and control the idea of what you're trying to do with the plate. Just simply hitting low line. If you aim for a low line drive, so many good things can happen. If you aim to get big and hit the ball in the air and hopefully hit a ball over the fence, there's significantly more things that may not go your way. So you aim small and you miss small and hopefully there's a few more line drives being whacked around the field.
Your pitching staff, you've got to feel good about it?
I do, but that's today, and things change. You never get big and feel too good about yourself. You stay working hard and keeping your head down, and I think that's the way to approach something like this. The pitchers have been doing a nice job for us. (Pitching Coach) Pete Maki does a great job developing these guys and programming these guys. So the pitchers, they'll be ready, and we have a good deep group.
Who's on first? Who's on second? Do we know what's going on with the infield yet?
Well, we do. We have a better idea now we brought Ty France in, who's a guy that's done it in this league for a while. I think he's planning on making a few adjustments out there on the field too, but he's he's a good experienced guy. He's good around the back, on the defensive side of things, and he's a guy with some upside with the bat. So I think you could see Miranda and Julian also contributing over there. Mickey Gasper, I think there are a lot of guys you could look to that we may see over there. But Ty France signing over there helps us.
There's obviously uncertainty with the ownership and all of that, but a commitment by ownership to say, 'nope, let's make some moves here'?
Yeah, we tend to work a little later in the offseason than maybe some teams or maybe even some fans are looking to.
But this is all sort of changed over the last five years?
It has, and this is how we do it. We've signed some great players at this point in the year, in the spring, and we did it again. We brought in some guys that fill some really good needs, Danny Columbe, Harrison Bader, we brought in some guys that I think can play key roles.
The Twins open Grapefruit League play in Fort Myers this Saturday, February 22 against the Atlanta Braves at 12:00 p.m. You can hear the game live on 830 WCCO and on the Audacy App.